


TAG Writing Challenge Part I – “The Five Stages of Grief - Bargaining: Scott and Virgil”

by countessofsnark



Category: Thunderbirds
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-21
Updated: 2018-07-21
Packaged: 2019-06-14 00:04:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,077
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15376347
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/countessofsnark/pseuds/countessofsnark
Summary: Author’s Note: once again, I can’t thank tb5-heavenward enough for letting be part of the first ever TAG Writing Challenge. Already looking forward to the next round, meeeep.





	TAG Writing Challenge Part I – “The Five Stages of Grief - Bargaining: Scott and Virgil”

It was supposed to be a simple trial run to test the improved grappling gear Brains had installed a few days ago. He should have known better than to expect things to go smoothly the way they would have before… Before it happened.

_We should’ve made sure every single piece of equipment was working as it ought to. Not just our Birds. He always did tell us that our vehicles are the most important things on this island, and their maintenance gets top priority. He should’ve known better than that and we shouldn’t have taken him up on his word. If only I had asked Brains to try out his new and improved sonar in his ship instead of letting Thunderbird 4 get the honours._

Scott had never been afraid of being alone inside Thunderbird 1’s cockpit. Until now. It felt like being shut inside a room with your worst enemy. In Scott’s case, that would be the relentless stream of what-if scenarios that kept him awake at night and invaded his conscious thoughts upon waking up.  
If only we had been able to track down the Hood a bit sooner. If only we hadn’t been so busy at that moment. We could have put his ship in one of Thunderbird 2’s pods. Why did he insist that we use our equipment only to help those in need if it meant not being to help him when he was in trouble?

He had to put her down, had to get out. The hatch unfolded and Scott all but tore off the harnas that kept him strapped to his chair before jumping out. He stumbled and fell to his knees, hands splayed out on the wet sand. The wave of nausea reached its peak and Scott found himself retching and spilling the meager contents of his stomach onto the beach. 

Scott used the autopilot on his wrist module to steer Thunderbird 1 back into her hangar. He decided to walk all the way back up towards the house. Maybe some physical exercise would help him vanquish these demons. 

Several hours had passed when Virgil Tracy followed his empty stomach down to the kitchen and saw his older brother sitting by himself, eyes staring listlessly into space. A glass of soy milk and a strawberry glaced doughnut sat untouched in front of him.

“Scott?” Virgil said, approaching carefully lest he should startle him. He waved his hand in front of Scott’s face but nothing happened. Virgil’s stomach began to protest again, causing him to temporarily abandon his attempts to communicate with Scott. He plunged his head inside the huge fridge and emerged a few moments later carrying a bowl of leftover porridge.

Virgil sat down beside Scott and began to spoon cold porridge into his mouth. He occasionally glanced at his brother but didn’t spot any changes in the latter’s demeanour. Virgil sighed and continued to stuff his mouth with porridge.

“Don’t you think it could have worked? I mean, we have done this kind of long-distance team work before. John guided us through the chaos of it all. You remember that one, don’t you?”

Virgil’s head snapped up, his eyes shot open and stared at Scott, who was still staring straight ahead. His face was blank, but a slight tremor around his lips betrayed the volcano that was shimmering just below the surface.

“What do you mean?” Virgil said inbetween swallowing the last spoonfuls of porridge. He tried hard to hide the concern in his voice.

“I had this dream. It keeps coming back to me. I know we had a chance but we never took it. What if we had… What if we at least tried…”

Scott’s voice trailed off. His Adam’s apple bobbed as he swallowed – a desperate attempt at maintaining the porselain mask that was his face.

Scott had always suffered from nightmares, long before it had happened. But this kind of unfocused staring and monotone mumbling was new and unsettling to the point where Virgil felt utterly helpless. The worst part was undoubtedly recognizing just what was going on. He had been down that same road. But each of the Tracy brothers had dealt with the inevitable, the undeniable, and the irreversible, in their own way. 

As for Virgil, he had smashed things, angrily painted blobs and disjointed stick figures, playing the loudest piano piece he could conjure up. There had been countless episodes of screaming inside the shower while cold water ran down his face and body, fists pounding cold unyielding tiles. He knew that Scott’s mind was desperately trying to find a compromise, a reason to believe that the past could have been altered if only…

 _If only there had been more time,_ Virgil mused. _If only I had trusted Gordon to handle the situation. Maybe if Thunderbird 2 had been faster…_

Virgil stopped that train of thought before it derailed and shook his head. He wanted to slap himself for going down that road again. And he had to pull Scott back on track, even if it meant facing the depressing depths of the Truth.

“He’s not coming back. There’s nothing you, me, or any of us could have done to prevent this from happening.”

Scott’s eyes narrowed into slits. His nostrils flared and the tremor in the corner of his mouth had become a visible twitch.

“You don’t know–“ he began, but Virgil angrily interrupted, slamming his fist onto the table top.

“Dammit, Scott. Stop chasing the ghosts of what could have been! It didn’t play out that way. And we can’t make that right, no matter how much we’d like to, but we can try and make him proud by continuing the path he set out for us to follow. We owe him that much, don’t you think?”

The last sentence hovered inbetween Scott and Virgil like a reprimand, a metaphorical wake-up slap in the face. Minutes passed and felt like hours. Virgil was trying to clean up the last scraps of porridge when suddenly a hand reached out and touched his arm. He slowly looked up to see tears streaming down Scott’s face.

The spell was broken at last. Virgil got up and walked over to Scott. They both stood and hugged each other. Words became superfluous, replaced by soft shoulder pats and muffled sobs. They would get over this. But as every adventurer knows, to get back to the top, you must first brave the valley below.

**Author's Note:**

> Author’s Note: once again, I can’t thank tb5-heavenward enough for letting be part of the first ever TAG Writing Challenge. Already looking forward to the next round, meeeep.


End file.
